Alvin Man gets 27 years for multiple bank fraud convictions

Published 3:23 am, Tuesday, February 26, 2013

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HOUSTON — Patrick Cody Morgan, 46, of Alvin, has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison for his convictions on multiple counts of bank fraud, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. A federal jury sitting in Houston found Morgan guilty on Oct. 30, 2012, of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and nine counts of bank fraud following two days of trial and less than three hours of deliberation. ?

Today, U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes, who presided over the trial, handed Morgan a total sentence of 324 months to be followed by five years of supervised release. Morgan was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $25,277,802.

At trial, the government presented evidence that from July 2004 and continuing through September 2007, Morgan, along with his co-conspirators, participated in a scheme to defraud financial institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and residential mortgage lenders. Morgan would locate condominium units in the Houston area from a builder or developer. He would then set up trust accounts with names similar to the condominiums through which the title to pass. Co-defendants would recruit individuals, also known as straw buyers with good credit to act as borrowers in applications for residential mortgage loans to purchase one or more of the properties, which would ultimately go into foreclosure because of the failure to pay the loans.

Within the overall scheme, there were more than 100 properties with a loan amount of more than $39 million. The loss amount was determined to be more than $25 million.

???Co-defendants John Elias, 44, Reginald Anderson, 41, Viktor Ly , 43, and Christopher Pearson, 34, all of Houston, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and will be sentenced on various dates in March and April 2013. Minh Vu, 41, also of Houston, was sentenced to 60 months prison on Feb. 19, 2013.

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?The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation and the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer Lowery and Carolyn Ferko.